ok wtf, here's the order in which I'd have ranked them, could we poll for second, third, etc. I don't really get the love for "Shaking Through" as it's kinda an embarrassing Stipe vocal but maybe that's the appeal? I don't really feel the ballads on this one anyway so maybe that's what I'm missing. Also fuck yeah on the Hib-Tone "Sitting Still", metallic punchiness is a nice way to put it.
B2 Sitting Still 3:18 9A2 Pilgrimage 4:30 6B1 Catapult 3:55 4A3 Laughing 3:58 4A4 Talk About the Passion 3:23 4A1 Radio Free Europe 4:05 10B5 We Walk 3:01 2B3 9-9 3:05 3A5 Moral Kiosk 3:32 7A6 Perfect Circle 3:30 7B4 Shaking Through 4:30 10B6 West of the Fields 2
― Euler, Tuesday, 30 December 2008 21:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Shaking Through is totally embarassing, borderline Everybody Hurts, but it runs me through nonetheless.
― served by boot-face (contenderizer), Tuesday, 30 December 2008 21:59 (fifteen years ago) link
you people embarrass too easily
― kamerad, Tuesday, 30 December 2008 23:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I just bought & listened to this album recently, and I was surprised at how much I didn't take to it. Like seriously, I thought it was going to be like Chronic Town (which brought the awez), and instead it reminded me of highly unengaging albums like Document and Out of Time...
to these ears: Remy Zero's first album>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Murmur.I guess I just don't get it
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 18:50 (fifteen years ago) link
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/U1046283INP.jpg
― Townie Mong Shit (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 26 March 2009 18:56 (fifteen years ago) link
DAM: Had to be there, maybe? I dunno. I was just floored when I first heard Murmur in the mid 80s (I discovered R.E.M. late). That energy and jangly guitar and big beat and gothic Southern vibe all sounded familiar, but somehow like it was floating in from outer space.
Too bad they've fallen so far since their pretty-damn good mid-career stuff.
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Had to be there, maybe?
yeah, that's what I'm thinking...I heard and liked Fables decently and Chronic Town and Automatic are amazing, but I'm beginning to suspect that I think R.E.M. is shit...
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:13 (fifteen years ago) link
You really need to distinguish between early-R.E.M., mid-career R.E.M., and late-career R.E.M. They're fairly distinct, in terms of their sound and the quality of their work.
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:17 (fifteen years ago) link
early = CT + first four albums
mid = Document thru Up
late = everything afterwards...
is this what you mean?
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:26 (fifteen years ago) link
I'd put Up in late-career (everything after Bill Berry left). Otherwise, yeah.
― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:27 (fifteen years ago) link
stuff I like from all 3 periods:
Chronic Town EP, Driver 8, prolley a couple other trax from Fables, Disturbance from the Heron House, King of Birds, Strange - the Wire cover, Losing My Religion, Texarkana, Shiny Happy People (mainly for Kate Pierson), ALL of Automatic, What's the Frequency Kenneth?, E-bow the Letter
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:33 (fifteen years ago) link
only E-Bow the Letter, Driver 8, and the Chronic Town EP are on a patch with that first Remy Zero album tho...
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 19:35 (fifteen years ago) link
Does "We Walk" have a vibraphone? I don't remember hearing it before!
― timellison, Monday, 30 December 2013 04:19 (ten years ago) link
not gonna blow anyone's minds here but what a fucking album am i right
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Sunday, 17 March 2019 21:37 (five years ago) link
You're completely correct, of course!
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 17 March 2019 21:50 (five years ago) link
empty prayer, empty mouth
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 21:28 (four years ago) link
cambien du temps?
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 21:29 (four years ago) link
take the steps to dash a worried heart
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 21:31 (four years ago) link
When I was in high school, I assumed a "moral kiosk" was one of those four-sided bulletin board things (with little roofs to keep the flyers dry) you see on college campuses... because R.E.M. was a "college band"
― jeanie bueller energy (morrisp), Tuesday, 5 November 2019 21:32 (four years ago) link
combien, combien, combien du temps
Michael Stipe and I were in the same Elementary French class in 1980; he sat very quietly in the back and seemed to be hiding under his long hair. While I was struggling with pop quizzes, he was probably writing cool lyrics.
― Brad C., Tuesday, 5 November 2019 21:42 (four years ago) link
somehow gets better every time i listen to it
― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, 9 November 2019 18:05 (four years ago) link
it’s an incredible album, there’s nothing else quite like it
― Titanic was cliched Marxist crap. (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 9 November 2019 18:40 (four years ago) link
I always imagine Lucy in her booth, dispensing advice to Charlie Brown, whenever I think of the phrase “Moral Kiosk”.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Saturday, 9 November 2019 19:16 (four years ago) link
Brad C., that’s awesome!
― quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Saturday, 9 November 2019 19:18 (four years ago) link
Minty breath, minty mouthIt’s Gumby in reactionMinty breath, minty mouthTalk about the passionGumby inGumby inGumby into town
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 9 November 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
Lol
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 9 November 2019 19:53 (four years ago) link
he was probably looking out the window murmuring “combien de temps?”
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 9 November 2019 20:14 (four years ago) link
I remember our TA very sweetly congratulating him on a story in the student paper about his band
from early 1980 to the release of Murmur was a long time in R.E.M. years
― Brad C., Saturday, 9 November 2019 20:31 (four years ago) link
It must have been astonishing to watch their trajectory after that. And the B52s of course.
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, 9 November 2019 20:32 (four years ago) link
we were such tiny children we took it for granted
the B-52s were the only frame of reference and they were rarely in Athens by that time
― Brad C., Saturday, 9 November 2019 20:39 (four years ago) link
Just looked up official lyrics to Shaking Through, and concluded that the ones I made up in my head over many years are much better. I had forgotten how great Laughing is precisely because he sings something like 'Largeing' or logic?, so I never can put title to tune. It you can't be a great lyricist, be an ambiguous one. Wonderful instrumental work in 9-9 - in fact right through the album. The song that hit me most emotionally was Perfect Circle. It's the way that depressed, wallowing verse transforms into an upbeat country jangle, always got me there.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Tuesday, 12 November 2019 15:56 (four years ago) link
i always knew he was saying “lighted” in “laughing” but for decades i have been assuming “Laocoön” was “your rocker mom”
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 16:10 (four years ago) link
Michael Stipe and I were in the same Elementary French class in 1980
this isn't quite as impressive, but as i was traveling yesterday i stopped in a collinsville, IL for gas and a filet of fish value meal at mcdonalds. turns out Collinsville is where michael stipe graduated from high school!!!!!!!!!
― at home in the alternate future, (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
You cannot fuck with this album.
― Mr. Snrub, Monday, December 15, 2008 6:38 PM (ten years ago)
I can remember the exact moment I first heard the 7" version of "Radio Free Europe" on my friend's mom's car radio, they stood out right from the start
― Book Doula (sleeve), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 16:33 (four years ago) link
'we walk' is probably objectively the least-good song on here, but that hasn't stopped me from singing it in my head every single time i walk up more than one flight of stairs.
― kanye kendrick frank kendrick frank kanye (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link
thinking about stipe in a college classroom really reminds me one of the amazing and distinctive things about them - maybe sometimes aided by not always being able to hear clearly - which is how stipe's lyrics and delivery managed to convey a ton of maturity and wisdom or at least lived experience from people who were actually quite young at the time. the earnestly political stand-taking songs, and a handful of over-reaching or too-literary metaphors, are the only ones that really jump out to me as "young man's" lyrics, and in that vein they're way less distracting than most. mostly it's this great and confident scramble of half-remembered college course stuff (Lessing's Laocoön essay, "the consul a horse," etc.), folk tales or things that feel like folk tales, and weird southern idiom overheard by an arty California transplant .... and it ends up being poetry, where either of those things by themselves would feel affected at length.
― weird ilx but sb (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 17:23 (four years ago) link
wonderful post Dr C
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 19:11 (four years ago) link
It is still a pretty astonishing debut album; I can't think of anything quite like it.
― quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Tuesday, 12 November 2019 23:46 (four years ago) link
If I started an R.E.M. cover band, I'd call it "Dreams of Elysian"
― quinn morgendorffer stan account (morrisp), Wednesday, 13 November 2019 00:21 (four years ago) link
Seem to recall that I had a cassette dub of a bootleg with this on it, but with considerably worse fidelity. Pretty amazing to hear. I think the difference in the guitar sound is as almost as significant as the presence of the dreaded synthesizer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUv4tn3zGj0
― timellison, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 20:10 (four years ago) link
do not like
― morrisp, Wednesday, 15 April 2020 20:27 (four years ago) link
that makes me sort of queasy
imagine if every song on Murmur sounded like that
― Brad C., Wednesday, 15 April 2020 21:05 (four years ago) link
boy that's missing a lot of momentum. not sure if it's the performance or the mix or what. the rhythm section doesn't feel locked in. stipe's vocals are dangerously easy to make out. mills's have echo on them which loses the reedy, byrdsy texture that's so key to the IRS-era records.
the synth isn't horrible imo but it's hard to add an element to a super familiar song and it does make them sound less unique. like without the murk and the kudzu they sound a lot closer to their obvious post-punk peers, like early U2 or idk The Teardrop Explodes...? it's weird. i dunno this recording works better for me as it goes on, but they so obviously made the right choice with Easter that even before i looked up the full backstory on this i was like "the hell, how would you record Chronic Town and then get amped up that your next record should sound like this? well, they didn't.
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 16 April 2020 00:43 (four years ago) link
OMG
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 16 April 2020 00:52 (four years ago) link
😳
Even the arrangement of the song is worse — the omission of the initial “Oooooooh....”s; the backing vocal lines coming right on top of each other in the chorus, with no breathing room...
― morrisp, Thursday, 16 April 2020 01:20 (four years ago) link
Er I like this more than the studio version. But I would, considering how much I prefer U2 and the Church and similar groups to REM. Super curious to hear any other tracks Hague did for them.
― Vinnie, Friday, 17 April 2020 00:42 (four years ago) link
I don't really mind it either. Though "less unique" is OTM.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 17 April 2020 01:16 (four years ago) link
Dunno if this has ever been posted on ILX but man, check this out. I had no idea there was evera recording of it made. Kind of a fabled gig in Rem history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq3zzeA40Q8
set 1: (Murmur) Radio Free Europe / Pilgrimage / Laughing / Talk About The Passion / Moral Kiosk / Perfect Circle / Catapult / Sitting Still / 9-9 / Shaking Through / We Walk / West Of The Fields
set 2: (Green) Pop Song 89 / Get Up 1 / You Are The Everything / Stand / We Live As We Dream, Alone - World Leader Pretend / The Wrong Child / Orange Crush / Turn You Inside-Out / Hairshirt / I Remember California / Untitled
encore 1: Get Up 2 / Wild Thing / Fall On Meencore 2: Low / Finest Worksong
― piscesx, Wednesday, 11 August 2021 22:55 (two years ago) link
yo what
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, 11 August 2021 22:57 (two years ago) link